Camping, Gophers, & Horses!

I've been super busy and didn't get the chance to update our blog last week. Two weekends ago we went camping with Trent, Tara, and Blake at Woolford Provincial Park. It's not too far from here, but it was nice to get away. It was super quiet there. Only a few other people there in the entire campground.

Our Woolford Campsite:

Uncle Tim is great at putting Blake to sleep:

Saturday afternoon we went into Cardston and met up with Julie, Kendall, and baby Kyla. We were so excited to finally meet Kyla. She's beautiful.

Then all of us headed out to Trent's parent's farm to check on our horses. Tim moved Jet out there late winter. Tim worked a bit with Jet in the round pen. He's now 2 years old (time flies eh?). Jet looks a ton like his mom Felize. And Tara's horse just had a little colt the weekend before.

Tim working with Jet:

Having a rest:

I got tired of taking pictures of Tim and Jet so decided to take a pic of my shadow.

Here's my baby bump at 30 weeks:

And OF COURSE if you're out at the farm, then a little (or a lot of) gopher hunting is a must. Tim, Trent, and Kendall loved it. The field was full of gophers. After the first few hours the wives and babies got tired. The guys went out for another hour. Silly boys!

Ready, Aim, FIRE!

Hmmm, I wonder who got that one?

To check out more pictures from the weekend go to our Photo Albums on the left of this page. Click on both Camping 2008 (Part 1) and Summer 2008.

We Love Camping - Writing on Stone

We love camping and we really love camping at Writing on Stone. We went twice last year (here and here). Trent, Tara, & Blake as well as Clay & Erica came with us this time. We had lots of fun. The weather was so nice on Saturday that we spent the afternoon swimming in the river. We also spent a bunch of time climbing in the hoodoos. I was pretty terrible at it this year. It's not so easy climbing in those when your balance is shot cuz you're almost 6.5 months pregnant. I had to take a few breaks cuz when I walk my stomach gets tighter and tighter making it hard to manouver. But if I stop for a bit it'll relax. Tim was super adventerous as usual and scaled all the tough hoodoos (makes me nervous). And our dogs were always right behind him. I find it amazing how well dogs can climb (and jump) if they really want to get to their best friend. (Click on any of the pictures to make them bigger.)

Tim & Dexter just checking things out:

I couldn't climb to the top of that hoodoo, so Tim came down to take a pic with me:

Tim calls this my pregnant pose and he catches me doing it every once and a while. It feels so good to stretch out my back and the hand on the tummy is trying to push a little foot out of my ribs:

Tara & Blake in the hoodoos:

Looking down on our campsite from the hoodoos:

This is me making Tim stop for a picture:

Just us and our dogs:

Our campsite:

Tim using the hoodoos as a climbing wall:

Blake & I chilling while the guys cooked steaks:

Mouse > Dog

My dog ate mouse poison. You know those green blocks that if a mouse eats them they'll die and then dry up and turn to dust (so you don't a find dead stinky mouse) -- like these ones. Did ya notice on their website they warn you to keep it away from dogs & cats. Ooops! Actually, we have no clue how he got into it. It was in one of those metal bait boxes. To be honest we weren't even sure which dog ate it or if they both had some. However the next day it was pretty easy to tell which one had. Dexter was S.I.C.K.! He had a few very bad days. The exterminator said what he ate wasn't enough to kill a dog his size, but boy did it make him sick. He wouldn't eat and yet we really needed him to eat to get the stuff moving through him. I even made a fancy treat for him with some cooked sausages with gravy over it. He wasn't interested. I had to literally spoon feed each bite into him. I felt bad for him, but at the same time I was ticked. Anywho, it's been a week now and he seems to be over it. Dex didn't turn to dust!

Being Replaced

Remember how much quading Tim and I did last year? I've mentioned it here, here, posted some videos here, talked about it again here, another time here, and here too. And that doesn't even come close to the number of pictures I've posted on facebook. We went everywhere...TOGETHER! I had a permanent seat on the back of Tim's quad. However I think he just took me along to photograph and video the "cool stuff". I was okay with that. I LOVE QUADING! We had so much fun. But now my seat has been replaced.

Before:

After:

(sorry the pic is bad as it was too dark outside)

With a little one in my tummy these days I've had to pass on the quad rides. But Tim's not riding alone. My seat has been replaced with a rack that our two dogs, Diesel & Dex, sit on and ride around with him. I'm bummed about missing all the quading this summer, but WAY MORE excited to be pregnant. Only a few more months and we'll get to meet our baby. Wohoo!

On an entirely different note, we sold our old trailer yesterday (yipee!) and this weekend we're going camping in our new one. We're excited! However I have to go out of town for the rest of this week for work, which leaves Tim to pack the trailer all on his lonesome. I'll leave him a list.

A Year in Review (2007)

I totally stole this from another blog. Loved the idea, so I wanted to do it here too. Here's a summary of our 2007.

January

Tim started his last year of school

Bought a new car

February

My cousin miraculously survives being in an avalanche

March

Rachel announced she's pregnant

Tim finished school & is now a Journeyman Electrician

Ashlee went to the ER with a kidney stone

Tim turns 27 years old

April

Tim sold his horse Felize

Camping at Fairmont Hot Springs

Tim bought a new Quad

Ashlee bought a new treadmill

Ashlee got her wisdom teeth out

Bought an old holiday trailer

May

Grampa had to go to an assisted living home

Camping at Writing on Stone

Camping at Lewis & Clarke Caverns

Tim fought his first house fire

Jenn announces she's pregnant

June

Camping at Waterton (Belly River)

Bought a new truck

Camping & Quading at Pole Haven

Britnee graduates highschool

July

We're Pregnant

Camping at Writing on Stone

Camping in Montana

Ashlee turns 25 years old

Trent & Tara announce they're pregnant

August

Attended my cousin Kyle's wedding

Grampa passes away

Our 3rd Wedding Anniversary

Attended my cousin Carlene's wedding

September

We lost our baby

Ashlee goes to the ER with fluid on her hip

October

Spent Thanksgiving in Castlegar with Kimmy & Brendan

November

New nephew Dallin was born

December

We're Pregnant Again

Celebrated Christmas in BC

Phew, 2007 has exhausted me! Here's hoping 2008 is AWESOME!

Puppies Puppies Everywhere

Jayda and Parker got a new little puppy. Their other dog Sadie (who was almost a year old) recently got hit on the road. Jayda was so upset as she has told us all over and over again that Sadie is her best friend. Jayda would spent all day long playing with her. And if she wasn't playing with Sadie then she would pretend to be Sadie.

Here they are with 7 week old Ryder:

And here's Ryder with my sister's pregnant belly:

Montana Vacation

Finally I downloaded the pictures from our Montana holiday. I know it took me forever. My excuse is I was sick and I'd rather lay down than sit in front of a computer. Anywho, but late than never.

We headed out late on Saturday to go to Kalispell. We got there, stopped for gas, and the guy at the gas station said we should spend the night at Ashley Lake, 20 miles outside of Kalispell. Sounds good. Well after driving more like 30 miles we see the sign for Ashley Lake. That turned into a gravel road for 20 miles and then we heard it. We had a flat tire! It's pitch black outside and Tim's now trying to change a flat tire. We didn't have a jack (what vehicle doesn't come with a jack?), but we borrowed one from a cabin near by. This part of the story is much longer, but I won't bore you with the details. Anywho, the guy that owned the cabin told us that Ashley Lake doesn't have any public camping..NICE. So we head back out and go to a lake that he told us about. Ya, well the site was full. Finally at 1:30 am we pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot in Kalispell and slept there. Ya, that's how we roll.


We couldn't repair the tire and we couldn't buy a new one. Our tires we're 100% Canadian and could only be bought in Canada. So I phoned my sister and she went and bought us a tire and brought it down to us (more on that later).

We spent the next 3 nights camping on Flathead Lake. So beautiful. Our site was right on the water. We had our own private beach. It was awesome. By this time though I was deathly sick with a head cold and morning sickness. I wasn't having much fun.

Tim swam with the dogs and took them boating. Actually all 4 of us fit in that dingy at once.



Wednesday we went to Big Sky Waterslides. My sister Jenn brought her family and our tire to Columbia Falls. They didn't let pregnant ladies on some of the slides, so Jenn and I had to sit out of some. I didn't really want to do the super steep ones anyways. Tim and my sister Britnee did. I liked the tube rides.




We spent that night at Whitefish Lake (ya not so nice). A stupid train went right by the campsite all the time. So on Thursday, MY BIRTHDAY, we moved on to Dickey Lake. I've camped their tons as a kid. And part of my birthday presents was snorkeling gear for myself and for Tim (I guess it was his bday too) and Dickey Lake is so crystal clear it made for perfect snorkeling.



And then that evening for my birthday my mom and my granny drove to see us (it's about an hour drive from Jaffray). It was great to have dinner and a bday cake with them. (Don't mind how I look in this photo. I was feeling pretty sick this day.)


Saturday we crossed back into Canada and visited Mom and Dad in Jaffray for a bit. Then Tim and I along with Dad went to Thunder in the Valley in the Crowsnest Pass. It was amazing. But I don't have any pictures for ya cuz by this day I was super duper sick and not feeling like much of anything. The fireworks were the best I've ever seen. They said they spent $35,000 on them. There were tons of people there though. We had a great spot to see the fireworks. I'm going again next year.

Here, There, & Everywhere–A Random Post

I don’t have a very exciting post for you today. My mowed lawn, empty sink, swept floors, and newly painted deck (all of which and more have been keeping me busy) don’t make for a very fun post. Life has been busy. Between real work, yard work, house work, church stuff, and exercise my days are zipping by. Midnight sneaks up on me every night. And 6am hurts every morning. But I’m not complaining. Things are going very well for Tim and I. We have plenty to do each day, but we get to slip in some fun stuff here and there.

I taught the RS lesson on Sunday. It was on food storage and gardening. Well my food storage is weak. Tim and I could only survive about three months on the Kraft Dinner, soup, and flour stored in our basement. And my garden just doesn’t exist. I guess I should add these two to my "To Do" list. Is it too late to plant a garden? Is it too late to sell my dogs so that they don’t dig and do their business in the new garden?

Did I tell you about my treadmill? I got it back in April on the same day Tim got his quad. Ya, that was a spendy day. Anywho, Tim has become the treadmill Nazi. You see, it’s a rent to own treadmill. So anytime that I don’t use it Tim threatens to take it back to Flaman Fitness. Ya, I totally whined for it and said I’d use it tons. Well, I do love the treadmill and I actually enjoy running on it...when I get there. It’s the lacing up the shoes and getting my butt there that’s the problem. My evenings are full so that only leaves mornings for my run. Have you ever tried running at 6am? I’m pretty sure I’m running with my eyes closed for the first 5 minutes. So I do my thing there and then get ready for work. Tim phones me on my drive to work to see how my run went. So what it all comes down to is that I don’t want to return the treadmill so I run on it daily out of spite.

Relaxing Hot Tub

Well last Saturday when Tim got home from work he decided that we should go for a hot tub. When we climbed into the tub the dogs were lying on the deck watching us. It was pretty hot out (close to 30°C) and I don't think Diesel & Dexter realized that the water we were in wasn't cool and refreashing rather it was 104°F. Diesel was just shaking cuz he wanted in the "cool" water so bad. I climbed out of the hot tub and BOING Diesel was in and swimming around. Dexter soon followed. Looks like it's time for us to drain our tub and put new water in.

Writing on Stone

So Writing on Stone was so fun. The weather was so nice. We even went swimming in the river that afternoon. Yes, it was THAT hot! We went climbing in the hoodoos Saturday afternoon. We had a blast. And I loved having a trailer with a fridge, sink, nice bed, and toilet. I even had a good sleep cuz I didn't have to worry about bears eating me. Actually if you've ever been to Writing on Stone it's not really the kind of place you'd find a bear. But watch out for the rattle snakes and huge porcupines. However we do a lot of camping in the mountains...and the bears do live there.

Here's me climbing over a hoodoo.

And Tim taking a rest at the very top of a hoodoo.

Check out the cool ledge I got up on...okay I had a boost from Tim.

And there's Tim way the heck out (and up) there. Too high for my liking.

Me with our puppies, Diesel & Dex. They are WAY better climbers than me. Dexter especially. Everywhere Tim went Dex was on his heels. Dexter would jump from the top of one hoodoo to the next with Tim. Diesel would climb down and then back up the next. I thought our dogs turned into mountain lions.

Then Trent & Tara came out to visit us Saturday night. So here's Trent getting ready to do the huge leap and Tim's gonna catch him (it's a long ways down as Tim is standing on a ledge himself). Okay he didn't really jump. Tara and I were having a fit cuz they were up way too high.

Tim thought this hoodoo looked like a climbing wall. Trent & Tara looked on while he tested it out. This was the only time that Diesel & Dex couldn't figure out how to get to Tim.

Tim and Trent made it to the top. Tara and I were very nervous during their climb. Diesel & Dexter were just nervous cuz they couldn't get to Tim. They must have done 50 laps each around the hoodoo trying to find a place to get up to him.

Goodbye Old Friend

After 11 years of companionship Tim sold his dear horse, Felize. He decided put an ad in the paper and she sold in a week. He's just been too busy to ride and we couldn't afford to pay board for a horse that we weren't using. We're extremely happy with the price we got and especially happy with the new home she's going to. It's going to a 14 year old girl that has been wanting a horse of her own as she and her siblings fight over the one that they already have. Felize is going to be so spoiled. When they came to pick Felize up yesterday the girl had a smile from ear to ear and just kept hugging Felize. I'm so glad she went to this girl instead of some rough and tumble cowboy. Felize is our baby so we're happy that her new family is going to keep in touch with us and send us pictures from time to time. I kept asking Tim if he was sad because he was selling Felize. He said he'd punch me in the nose if I asked once more....I guess that means no. Well I was sad for him. But now we still have Jet that we need to sell. Do you want a year old colt?

Family Wall

I've added some photos to our "Family" wall. Our family is pretty small with just Tim and I plus a couple horses and dogs. We'll have to get some pictures of our extended family or it'll just have to stick with what we have in the frames. I want to change the photos to sepia from black & white. I think it'll go better with the color scheme of our house. Oh and sorry about the blinding flash reflecting in the photo. If I didn't use the flash then the picture was blurry. And I need to reprint the one that has Tim's head cut off.

Brrrrrr

Oh ya, it's freezing here. It's been super cold for almost a week now. Yep, the weather station said with the wind chill our high will be -39 degrees Celsius today. Nice eh? Oh and for our family in the US, that's around -38 degrees Fahrenheit. Yes, we're freezing in Southern Alberta. We actually have snow too. I'm sure we'll have a Chinook soon and it'll all disappear. But right now it's pretty.

I don't think our pets are loving it though. Their water keeps freezing. Which leaves Tim and I to haul buckets of water to our two horses and the dogs daily. We do have an electric water heater for our horses water trough, but in order to get it to work we have to string an electrical cord across our backyard and the problem is we have Dexter who LOVES to chew everything: hoses, buckets, sprinklers, extension cords, etc.

Tim's been working outside some lately, so we bought him some nice outdoor work clothes. Now he has insulated pants and coat. He says it's much warmer. The thick material stops the wind from blowing right through him.

Jet

So I told you all not too long ago how fuzzy Jet is now. Ya, it's chilly out and he's a big fuz ball. However, he no longer has a mohawk and his tail is much longer than before. I took some pictures of him the other morning to show you. The quality isn't that great cuz it was early in the morning and the sun wasn't up yet, but it was too bright to use my flash. Bad lighting. Tomorrow Jet will be 7 months old.

And November's Here

Well November is now upon us. I don’t have much of an update for everyone. Things have been pretty much the same for Tim and I. Tim’s still having fun with the Stirling Fire Department. It’s keeping him extremely busy on top of his regular job as a electrician and church stuff. I’ll have to get a picture of him all dressed up. And what I am up to? I’m not really sure. My days zip by and I feel as though I get nothing accomplished.
We don’t get to do a whole lot with our horses these days. It’s dark when we leave for work and dark when we get home. Our foal, Jet, didn’t care for the snow last week and now he’s super fuzzy with his lovely winter coat. He’s friendly and loves people (which is nice). He’s also really good around our two crazy dogs. They’re pretty wild and yet Jet is fine with them (his mama is the same way). Jet will let both Diesel and Dexter eat out of the same bowl as him. And I don’t know why my dogs like grain, but they do.
With it now being November, we’ve started looking around for a few Christmas gift ideas. A lady told me last week that her house already has all her Christmas decorations up. I’m not quiet there yet. I think I’ll leave my Fall pumpkins and scarecrows up for a bit longer. I don’t have Christmas fever yet. I think it’s because all our snow melted last weekend. When is it okay to put your Christmas decorations up? My neighbor has his lights up. Is it too early?
So that’s a little update from us (well mostly me). Tim’s my silent partner when it comes to this whole Blogging thing. Occasionally I can get him to sit down for a second to read what I post, but that’s about it.

Farewell to Dude

On Saturday Tim and I sold one of our horses, Dude. After thinking about it for a while we both knew it was the thing to do. He actually sold really fast (in a few days) and we were surprized cuz we didn't thinking many people would be buying in the Fall. It looks like he's got a nice home to go to though. In the next few weeks Tim and I will go to Jaffray and pick up my sister's horse, Ritz. Tim told Kimmy that we'd take care of Ritz for a little while for her. So, we'll be back up to 3 horses shortley. We'll miss Dude though.

Summer Update

Okay, so I think I've finally got this thing figured out -- maybe. Well I'll give you a quick update of our summer.

We'll start with June. June was a write off...completely. My sister Kimmy was married on June 17th to Brendan Yuill from Cardston. It went very well (even though it was super windy the day of). In addition to Kimmy's wedding, Tim and I found a house out in Stirling that we just loved. So of course, we had to put our house up for sale and pack and move (all in June). We listed our house and we sold it for $5500 more than our asking price in three days. Then we needed get banks and lawyer and all that fun moving stuff in order. We packed and moved and were living in Stirling by July 6th. Also Rachel and her family moved to Lethbridge. We love having them near by.

Now July...we got moved to Stirling, but we needed to unpack. We've got most of that done now (yes I know it's September). Our garage looks like a tornado passed through it still. But there was some outside stuff around the house that we needed to get done before it got cold. First we had to build a fence to keep our two dogs from running around Stirling. Tim also took our little balcony out back and made a huge deck for us. We had to (yes, had to) get our hot tub pad ready for our hot tub (I brought it with me from Lethbridge) and Tim hooked that up too. And that was our July. We got the house set up (and had my birthday).

Then onto August. We needed a break so we took a week off of work and headed to Las Vegas (it's a very long drive). We had a great time with family and then we spent two days on the Strip. It was soooo hot there though. When we got back to Canada I thought I was going to freeze to death and it was 27 degrees here. I guess I got used to the 45 degree in the shade in the desert. On our way home from Vegas we stopped in Salt Lake City for a day. We were able to go camping only once this summer. Shauna had a baby boy, Thomas. He's a cutie. However, Tim and I are now really falling behind on the baby count.

Now it's September and Fall is here. The summer seemed to fly by. I forgot to mention that Tim also switch jobs in August as well. He's still doing the same thing, electrical, but now he works for a company here in Lethbridge - Midland Electric. This winter he'll have his ticket and we'll be all done with the apprenticeship. Me...I'm still working for the Government. I really like my job (as far as jobs go anyways). The Mad Cow problem so far this year as well as the Anthrax outbreak in Manitoba this summer has kept us super busy. Keeps things interesting, right?